1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a print system, a network interface apparatus, and a printer and, more particularly, to a print system, a network interface apparatus, and a printer, for distributing and arranging WEB contents (contents of information) which is provided to the user.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, generally, a printer has been used in a network form owing to the spread of the Internet. Usually, in a printer at a high price such as high speed printer, color printer, or the like, there is a tendency such that a network interface is built in. However, in a printer at a low price such as a monochromatic printer or the like, the network interface is not built in the apparatus main body, but is often separately provided as a network card module.
In this case, the printer main body and the network card module individually have CPUs and the network card module is intelligent existence. The printer main body and the network card module communicate by the connected interface. This contrarily means that a network service of a heavy load can be ejected to the network card module, a load on the CPU of the printer main body can be relatively reduced, and costs of the printer main body can be reduced.
According to the conventional network interface, it is sufficient that merely print data represented by, for example, lpr can be transmitted. However, in recent years, since necessity to enable a host computer to manage information regarding the printer has been increased, various means have been provided as additional techniques.
As a simplest example, there is a method of enabling information management data (job control language=Job Language) to be also transmitted by a port for transmitting print data. Since the Job Language shares the port for transmitting the print data, there is no need to increase a dedicated service port and it can be relatively easily installed. However, there is a problem such that if a large amount of print data is transmitted, the port is occupied by the transmission of the print data, so that the transmission and reception of the information management data are stopped. There is also a drawback such that since the lpr protocol in the network is a unidirectional type connection, the host computer inherently cannot obtain the information from the printer.
As a next method, there is a technique such that the information is obtained from the printer by using an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)/MIB (Management Information Base). It is a method whereby a dedicated port for data transmission and reception is used and the SNMP as a standard is used. According to such a method, however, it is necessary to independently develop a dedicated client program for providing a UI (User Interface) for receiving data from the printer by using the SNMP and displaying the received data. In addition, according to such a method, since the SNMP is originally a protocol for transmitting and receiving simple information, the information regarding a print layer can be provided only as simple data such as numeral, character train, or the like. Thus, the client program has to possess the information constructing the UI such as bit map image data showing a construction of an apparatus or the like. There is, consequently, a problem such that the client program has to be developed so that it can cope with all apparatuses.
As a latest method, there is a method whereby the network card module is equipped with a WWW server for providing HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) services and providing WEB contents such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) data regarding the apparatus information or bit map image data via a network. A client computer displays the WEB contents onto a GUI (Graphical User Interface) by using a general WEB browser. The user can also operate the printer by the displayed WEB contents. Thus, even if a dedicated client program is not provided, the user can see the information regarding the printer or operate the printer. According to the conventional methods, it is necessary that the dedicated client flu program manages all of information (message character train, bit map images) that is peculiar to each of various apparatuses. According to the method using the WWW server, however, it is sufficient that the apparatus possesses only the information regarding the apparatus itself, and products can be provided in a short period of time.